A tiny, playful dot-matrix display screen within the firm’s most costly telephone but

With the third era of its smartphone sequence, Nothing made the bizarre transfer to launch the cheaper ‘a’ line first, unveiling . Now, it’s time for its newest flagship. The Nothing Cellphone 3, beginning at $799 (with a $899 choice with 16GB of RAM) goes up in opposition to giants just like the Google and — a aggressive slice of the smartphone world. As soon as once more, although, there’s nothing available in the market that fairly resembles a Nothing, as the corporate makes an attempt to steadiness distinctive design with flagship (and a few not-quite-flagship) elements.

The massive change this time round is that Nothing is swapping the flashing lights of its Glyph Interface for a tiny dot-matrix show on the rear of the machine and is looking it the Glyph Matrix.

It’s the shiny design lynchpin of Nothing’s Cellphone 3. The matrix is fabricated from 489 LEDs, and gives extra utility than a light-weight present. Nothing says it is an evolution of the flashing lights of the Glyph Interface into one thing extra sensible. With that intention, there’s a Glyph button that sits below the glass again. One other good thing about this shift, Adam Bates, is that eradicating the Glyph lights freed up extra space throughout the telephone.

As an alternative of getting the lights on the again flash in patterns to point when sure contacts are calling, the Cellphone 3’s new tiny display screen can show monochromatic photographs as a substitute. At first, these shall be preset shapes, however finally, you’ll be capable to customise your personal animation (or static dot-matrix picture — it’s unclear) for every of your contacts. Forward of launch, Nothing shared a that lets folks take photographs and switch them into Glyph patterns, but it surely’s like a really, very small Gameboy digicam (however worse). The one I took kinda seems to be like my head? I assume? At the least there’s a distinction, and provides a glimpse of what customers would possibly be capable to present on the matrix display screen

Alongside Glyph-style notifications, the matrix will be capable to show easy widgets, reminiscent of climate and battery ranges. It may be a stopwatch, and even a low-res mirror (extra on that later). It can be used as a visible countdown when utilizing a timer with the digicam, too. And there’ll even be video games, like rock-paper-scissors and er, spin the bottle. Fortunately, Nothing didn’t make the assembled media check this at its huge international launch. You’ll be capable to make your personal Glyphs via an SDK being launched by Nothing. It’ll be attention-grabbing to see how tough it’s to program your personal glyphs. what I would like, already? A .

My first impression is that it’s a little bit extra restrained than the sunshine present of the Glyph Interface on earlier telephones. Moreover, a dot-matrix design actually aligns with the period of design inspirations that Nothing is drawing from. You possibly can frivolously work together with the matrix via the Glyph button, which is intriguingly constructed below the rear cowl of the Nothing Cellphone 3. It’s a single button, so studying the quirks of a long-press and a short-press, particularly when there’s no tactile response, takes a little bit of time.

Flanked by different keen photographers, YouTubers and media, I took a little bit an excessive amount of time making the Glyph mirror work. Weirdly, you may’t use it as a selfie information with the first cameras, or a minimum of I didn’t determine throughout my hands-on.

Elsewhere, the design is impressed by the traces and shapes of the New York Metropolis subway map, whereas the see-through again of the Cellphone 3 has a three-column design that divides the element curves, digicam modules and glyph matrix.

The Cellphone 3 is Nothing’s thinnest telephone but and is eighteen % thinner than the Cellphone 2. The brand new Nothing flagship additionally lacks the chonky digicam unit that’s on the Cellphone 3a Professional. It is because, this time, Nothing has the funds to take action: the Cellphone 3 prices $350 extra, so it may well use smaller (even custom-made) elements to shrink the footprint.

As an alternative, the three-camera structure jogs my memory loads of the most recent Galaxy S24 Extremely, with solely barely protruding digicam lenses. It’s not flush, however maybe I’m asking for an excessive amount of — the one up to date smartphone with a completely flat digicam unit is the Pixel 9a.

Regardless of its slimmer profile, the machine nonetheless incorporates a periscope zoom on a 50-megapixel sensor. It goes as much as 3x optical zoom, 6x digital zoom and a 60x AI Tremendous Res Zoom. (Sure, all of us blame Google and Samsung for this nonsense.) This will even function a macro digicam, permitting for clearer close-up pictures.

The principle digicam can be 50MP, with an f/1.68 aperture (Nothing says it’s 70 % quicker at seize than the Cellphone 2) and even features a lossless 1.5x zoom. There’s additionally an ultrawide digicam with a 114-degree area of view and, you might need guessed, a 50MP sensor. Even the front-facing digicam is 50MP. Count on the standard Android array of capturing options throughout the digicam system, together with Auto Tone, Portrait Optimizer, Evening Mode Macro Mode and Motion Mode. There are additionally a number of capturing presets to browse on your favourite capturing aesthetic, which I loved enjoying with on a demo unit.

I’m hopeful that the Cellphone 3 shall be a succesful sufficient smartphone digicam. Taking some early pictures, throughout a busy hands-on session on the launch occasion, the digicam app appeared quicker than previous Nothing units and low-light processing appeared fairly near the likes of Google’s Pixel.

Imaging has usually been the weakest a part of Nothing’s telephone technique, however every iteration it will get higher. It’s one thing I’m wanting ahead to placing to the check. Nothing has added an LED gentle that flashes crimson to point video recording. This could nonetheless be disabled in settings, but it surely’s a pleasant contact that faucets into the crimson splashes you’ll see all through Nothing’s {hardware} and software program.

The Cellphone 3 additionally packs the corporate’s brightest show but, reaching as much as 1600 nits at its most brightness settings, peaking at 4,500 nits with appropriate HDR content material, The 6.67-inch display screen has the next 1.5K decision than the Cellphone 2. There’s additionally IP68-rated safety in opposition to mud and water.

Rounding out the spec sheet, the telephone has a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, marking the largest compromise this yr. Nothing instructed me that the Cellphone 3 wasn’t chasing specs like telephones that price a number of hundred {dollars} extra. Nevertheless, the Galaxy S25 has the extra highly effective Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it’s additionally $800.

The excellent news is that the Cellphone 3 shouldn’t be perceptibly sluggish or laggy — the corporate says it’s 5 instances quicker than the Cellphone 3a. Nothing added there needs to be a 60 % enchancment on AI efficiency in comparison with the Cellphone 2. I’m intrigued to see how battery life fares, however not too nervous. The OnePlus 13 Professional had the identical processor and carried out very properly in our battery rundown check.

The 5,150mAh silicon-carbon battery may be charged to 50 % in 20 minutes with a appropriate 65W charger, and as much as one hundred pc in below an hour. It’s one of many first telephones to reach within the West with a silicon-carbon cell, including additional intrigue to how properly the battery life will carry out. There’s additionally 15W wi-fi charging, which Nothing appears to be retaining unique to its most premium telephones.

The Cellphone 3 runs Android 15 out of the field, however with Nothing’s spin on issues, that includes {custom} icons and native apps. That features Important House, which works with a {hardware} button launcher first launched on the 3a. Whereas there have been rumors that Nothing would possibly fold the characteristic right into a subscription, it’ll be free for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, Good Collections, which was meant to collate screenshots and different information continues to be being labored on and gained’t be out there at launch.

The main target, software-wise, stands out as the new Glyph Matrix, however you may count on a number of the typical AI-assisted options like pure language search that Nothing calls Important search. It will likely be in a position to faucet into every little thing on the Nothing Cellphone 3. Nothing’s cheaper 3a units leaned into software program too, however with the Cellphone 3 there’s extra significance on the specs. The query is: Is that this flagship sufficient?

The Cellphone 3 is priced at $799 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. An $899 mannequin will even launch with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage. Each black and white variations shall be out there to pre-order on July 4, with gross sales beginning July 15 by itself retailer at . The corporate plans to launch its personal drops in choose bodily areas on July 10.

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